SWIFT Justice: Volkswagen Loses Against Suzuki

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Volkswagen received a legal black eye from its estranged Japanese partner Suzuki. Volkswagen had taken a silly trademark fight all the way to the General Court of the European Union, and lost today, Reuters says. This is unrelated to the divorce proceedings between Volkswagen and Suzuki, but it definitely comes at an inopportune time.

In 2004, Volkswagen contested a trademark application by Suzuki for “SWIFT GTi.” The mark had been granted by the EU’s Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM).

Europe’s second highest court ruled today that there is no likelihood of the SWIFT GTi being confused with Volkswagen’s Golf GTI. According to the ruling,

“OHIM correctly held that the average consumer in Sweden, Benelux, Germany, France, Italy and Austria would not assume that all vehicles, parts and accessories come from the same manufacturer simply on the basis of the combination of the three letters ‘gti’, and accordingly any likelihood of confusion was excluded.”

A spokesman for VW said that his company might appeal. Or not

Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • GS650G GS650G on Mar 21, 2012

    Next thing will be fights over the GT label, that should make a few lawyers rich.

  • Theonewhogotaway Theonewhogotaway on Mar 21, 2012

    "GTI" cannot be trademarked (esp. since VW was not the first company to use it). It stands for GT (Grand Turismo) with fuel injection. And it is not a model name (until the dropped the GOLF or the RABBIT from the GOLF GTI) but a designation that was used in a whole bunch of models. It's like trying to trademark "GT" "S" "SE" "i" "GS" "Limited"... Just crazy.

    • Fusion Fusion on Mar 21, 2012

      "GTI" can of course be trademarked. And it is in fact trademarked, both in several european countries, as well as in the USA (73688458).

  • Mr Nosy Mr Nosy on Mar 22, 2012

    Oh Lord! Is this what happens to a black '91 Swift GT upon trade in? Discount NASCAR meets Fast(ish) 'n Furious? Well, that's karma for ya,since said trade-in was for the ironically named Suzuki Esteem,circa 1997.This is a case of Suzuki using any means necessary to escape from the grips of Fahrvergnugen,whilst burning bridges without a boat.Now for the record,my '91 Suzuki was a "Swift GT",not a GTi,gTI,nor gTi.If I also recall,YUGO & Croatia,et,al,upon realizing that all that shelling and genocide(O.K Serbia was the headlining act,but still.)was deemed a "big mix-up/misunderstanding",made an attempt to re-enter the US market via re-naming themselves "ZMW"(Zastava Motor Works.),via a third party distributor(What is it with people named Malcolm? be it Bricklin,or Mc Laren,ya always gotta watch your wallet around 'em.).BMW,sued and lost,with the judge claiming that no one has a monopoly on the alphabet.Even if the product is called ZMW and will most likely,suck.Of course,today corporations are people too, so I may have missed something.Just like the presence of new Suzukis in the greater Los Angeles area....Number of Kizashis spotted to date:THREE.Number of SX4 Sportbacks to date:ZERO.Suzuki,fool,you better recognize.

  • Jconli1 Jconli1 on Mar 22, 2012

    didn't this originally happen in the early 90s? I had an '89 Swift GTi similar to the one in the pic (well, not that similar) and by 1991, they had taken to just calling it the GT due to heat from VW. ... damn, I miss that car. Never got sick of hearing, "What did you do to that Geo?!'

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